Kanye West seems content with his earlier decision to make his album Donda 2 unavailable to the usual, streaming services. On February 28 (2022), West announced on Instagram, “Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube. Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own.”
In a later post, Ye further explained his actions when he said, “After 10 albums after being under 10 contracts. I turned down a hundred million dollar Apple deal. No one can pay me to be disrespected. We set our own price for our art. Tech companies made music practically free so if you don’t do merch sneakers and tours you don’t eat.”
The revolutionary release reportedly netted Kanye over $92,000 per hour in pre-sales alone, and made him over $1.3 million in sales within 24 hours of releasing the device, according to SOHH. Despite this, Billboard announced recently that it will not include Donda 2 in its charts because the album violates an apparent policy that “albums sold with merchandise are not chart-eligible.”
But if Billboard or anyone else thought that this would rub Kanye the wrong way, they were wrong. Today, Kanye said on Instagram, “Big win for the kid We can no longer be counted or judged We won we won we won we won We make my own systems We set our own value aaaand yesterdays price is not todays price baaaaabeeeee!!!!!”
Jay-Z fought Billboard over a similar complication back in 2013 over the release of his album Magna Carta Holy Grail and won. As for Kanye, he flipped the situation on its head, considering it a win to be excluded.
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